A prescription for removing stress from the NHS

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The NHS has a special place in British society — representing, in the words of
its founder, Nye Bevan, the “most civilised achievement of modern
government”. But over subsequent years pride in the NHS was undermined by
chronic underfunding, leading to the belief that the price you had to pay
for free healthcare was waiting. Only a decade ago, some of my patients had
to wait two years for major heart surgery.

The message was clear: we were offering good technical healthcare within a
Third World system. There was a rising level of despondency among those
offering and receiving care.